Have I said lately...I REALLY love NHS

i'll just repeat what i said several pages ago, and add that as a patient i too have had very positive experiences with my GP... BUT i am also a nurse and i feel that everyone should educate themselves to the healthcare system that will treat them.
if you were choosing an insurance plan in the states wouldn't you check out the doctors/hosptials reputation, location, specialties???

I'm not sure I'm getting your point.  If I've only had good experiences I shouldn't say that because I haven't worked behind the scenes?  And I really don't understand wahat you said about people waving their passports and expecting better treatment.  I've never heard of that.  And I also don't see how this relates to choosing an insurance plan.  Yes, people should know how the NHS works and what to expect but how does that equate with telling endless scare stories?

I've had good experiences.  Most people I know have had good experiences.  And I personally don't see that only horror stories or dire warnings should be shared. 

Yes, people should know how the NHS works and what to expect but how does that equate with telling endless scare stories?

i'm not sure what you consider endless scare stories...it's an everyday/every shift occurance that nurses working on the wards care for 20-30 patients with the help of untrained staff..

What on earth would make you think that these are "scare stories" and not the real deal?

If you read NHS Blog doctor you can find loads of testimonials written by British doctors and nurses regarding how unsafe the hospitals are.....

http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/

Go to the page and scroll down and you can see what doctors and nurses are saying.  I don't think the links for the individual stories have worked.

Health workers and pensioners have taken to the streets to protest (BBC)


There is a desperate shortage of nurses on the wards, and the few remaining ones are close to resignation (A nurse writes...)


Modern nurse training concentrates on “soft” skills and sociology rather than patient care (A student nurse writes...)


Newly qualified doctors are on the dole (Doctors on the scrap heap)


Despite record expenditure on Health Care, services are being cut


There are not enough doctors in the hospitals to provide safe medical cover (A Houseman's Tale)


To save money, the NHS is being dumbed down; the government is training up unskilled or poorly skilled workers to take over from doctors (here)


http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2006/05/starving-to-death.html

Nurses and Doctors are powerless to change things.  The public needs to speak out and get politically active or things will continue to deteriorate.   If they are not going to do this then I don't want to hear them complain when grandma starves in hospital.  Nurses and doctors are doing their best but we really have no control over the situation.

I do believe they're the real deal.  What I don't get is the refusal to recognise that it is possible to live here and find the NHS a good thing. 

You've both posted negative experiences.  No one has doubted you.  But it seems like you feel the need to discredit anyone who doesn't agree with you.

I merely stated that in 17 years my experience has been mostly good.  This is the truth.  But your replies almost seem to say that I don't know what I'm talking about. 

I don't want to get into a lengthy debate about the NHS.  I don't want to get into a lengthy debate about US healthcare. 

But I'm stating again, as a moderator, that people are entitled to their own opinion of the NHS and shouldn't feel like they can't post good experiences.  And it would not be true to tell future expats that they will not get good treatment on the NHS. 

but by and large I'll take it over having to worry about insurance.

NO doubt!

I was changing jobs and one of my friends said, 'What about insurance?'

Man it is SO nice to just change jobs and not have to worry about all that, or 'pre-existing' conditions, co-pays, limits, out-of-network, etc. etc.

Man it is SO nice to just change jobs and not have to worry about all that, or 'pre-existing' conditions, co-pays, limits, out-of-network, etc. etc.

You said it.  The last time I used the US healthcare system I had a four year old having a severe allergic reaction.  And I stood in the tiny er of our local country hospital with a child swollen to the size of a watermelon while they quizzed me about a  $60 bill that had been left unpaid by insurance four years earlier without my knowledge. 

I know it isn't this way throughout the UK, but it is here.  I feel for those of you that have to work in substandard conditions.  Been there, feels like hell.  I hope it improves, or you can find a more supportive place to work.  I wouldn't work under those conditions anymore. 

That has been the problem for at least the last few months, and will continue for quite some time into the future...if you're a nurse in the UK and you're working in substandard conditions and you want to continue working as a nurse, you're stuck!  You either have to work under those conditions or quit nursing, for the most part. 

My DF is one of the 'lucky' ones, if you want to call it that.  He was an HCA for years before attending university to become a staff nurse, and his nursing job was waiting for him on the same ward where he'd been an HCA for years.  He started to have his doubts about the whole thing halfway through his training, as conditions on the ward deteriorated.  His trust doesn't seem to be in dire financial straits, but forget about decent staffing, or being able to call in extra help when it's needed, etc., etc. 

It is really when you start to check into other nursing employment around the UK that you realise there is a problem.  It is when you hear your partner's stories, and then visit a sick friend at a totally different hospital from where he works and are amazed at the conditions, that you start to wonder.  It's when you listen to your pregnant friend's stories about her visits to the midwife and visits to the hospital during her pregnancy that you wonder even more.  I realise I'm just one person in nearly 60 million in this country, and these hospitals are all in the same area (Birmingham), but none of them are ladybug59's hospital, but it's still just one geographical area...but you do start to wonder.  You start to read your DF's nursing magazines, wondering where to find a better hospital, but all you read are more of the same problems, in most areas of the country...the whole county of Cornwall seems to be having a ruction at the moment as to whether they will have any A & E departments left at all, not to mention the closure of a 'few' hospitals...none of this is due to a shortage of patients or staff...

If the argument is whether I'm happy not having to worry about health insurance any more, you bet I am!!  If the argument is whether the media might be blowing some things out of proportion (grandma died of MSRA, left in her own excrement), they may be, but that example is a real one that didn't happen in a Birmingham hospital.  What I'm saying is that I may be in Birmingham, but these things are happening in smaller cities and towns as well, and I'm sure it happens in the US, but we're not in the US...this is the system we all have to rely on. 

My personal experiences so far have been good, visits to the GP, and I'm really happy about that.  My experiences in the US were mostly good, too...in both cases, however, I worried about the underlying difficulties of the system itself...the NHS is having problems, and I'll continue to try to educate myself about what those problems are.  I don't know that there's anything I can do personally to help improve things, DF is sure there will be no improvement and is ready to do a runner to where the grass is greener...

I do agree that the pubic must speak out if they live in trusts that are failing to do their jobs properly.  Just like people should speak out about crappy service no matter where  you live. 

An interesting note to all of this is that there have apparently been some recent reports on GMTV (don't know as I don't watch it) about the levels of staffing in some Maternity Wards and the shipping of mums out to surrounding hospitals etc.  We spent a good 20 to 30 minutes at the antenatal classes just dispelling staffing and related issues.  The end result was that yes they are slightly understaffed, but not to the point of it being a worry yet.  Their manager is one that fights for them and for safe staffing levels.
Obviously there is room for improvement. Still I am glad I don't live some other trust with really bad issues. 

So basically I have been happy with the Trust in Plymouth and I have also seen first rate care at the Maternity Ward in Derby (Littleover/Mickleover area).  I can't say a word about anywhere else as I have not been treated there nor had anyone I know treated any where else.

The other side to this to is that someone can have a bad expedience in a good trust and a good experience in a bad trust.  So much depends on the Dr. and nurses in the situation and their reactions and what they decide to do.  I think what is scary is that no matter where you live or who you are your Dr/Nurse is human and fallible.  So already from the initial point of contact there is room for error.